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Eerie and Hypnotic: Wave Pendulums

From the "I Wish This Were My Desk Toy" department, here's a video of a wave pendulum built using billiard balls. It's oddly hypnotic, as you watch the series of individual pendulums acting on their own (swinging to and fro), but as a group they appear to interact, forming intricate patterns, syncing up and breaking apart.

A wave pendulum like this is built of equally weighted objects suspended by different (and carefully calculated) lengths of string. Released simultaneously, their differing periods (frequencies of oscillation) cause them to form a “wave” image together that cycles through all possible patterns.

It’s mind-boggling. Looking for a science fair project? This would be a great one.

And here's a similar wave pendulum video, minus the colored billiard balls:

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Also on Mental Floss:

DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)